New computer graphics have been used to debunk the debunkers regarding historic Apollo 11 lunar landing.Credit: NASA

Tackling the skeptics out there that the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 was a hoax is NVIDIA, a pioneering visual computing and computer graphic enterprise.

By using Maxwell, their new graphics processing unit (GPU) architecture, company experts have debunked the debunkers.

Maxwell is designed to solve some of the most complex lighting and graphics challenges in visual computing. Even on the Moon!

Conspiracy theorists have claimed that the historic mission was performed in a back-lot studio. Part of the crazy claim is that moonwalker Buzz Aldrin must have been lit by something other than the Sun.

Using Maxwell, a demo team rebuilt the scene of the Moon landing in Unreal Engine 4, a game engine developed by Epic Games. They simulated how the Sun’s rays, coming from behind the lander, bounced off the Moon’s surface, and Neil Armstrong’s suit, to cast light on Aldrin as he stepped off the lander.

To recreate the Moon landing, the demo team collected every detail they could.

According to a NVIDIA press statement, their team researched the rivets on the lunar lander, identified the properties of the dust coating the lunar surface, and measured the reflectivity of the material used in the astronauts’ space suits.

Using Voxel-Based Global Illumination, the Apollo 11 landing site was analyzed, determining the way light bounces from one object to another in real time.Credit: NVIDIA

Big clue

It was during this research when the demo team uncovered a big clue.

A video clip that showed Aldrin descending the ladder had a bright spot of light that seemed to move every time the camera did.

Using Maxwell to simulate the conditions on the Moon’s surface during the lunar landing 45 years ago, it revealed how Aldrin was illuminated by light reflected from the Moon’s surface and Armstrong’s spacesuit.

Stars in the scene

Another detail seized on by skeptics: photos from the landing site don’t show any stars. That’s led some to claim that the U.S. Government faked the landing and left out the stars in the scene, because it would be impossible to portray the position of the stars from the moon.

By using Maxwell the demo team was able to find them.

“The reason the stars aren’t visible is [that] the exposures in the camera are set to capture the scene on the Moon’s surface,” said Mark Daly, a NVIDIA veteran who led the demo team. “But they’re there. And our demo team was able to find them by digitally changing the exposure on the shots to reveal them.”

Bottom line from the company: “No, the Apollo 11 moon landing wasn’t a hoax. And we can prove it.”

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